Piloting a specially-modified single-engine Cirrus SR22, Campbell made 34 stops in 15 countries and spent 200 hours in the air.

He is the first teenager to fly solo around the globe and the youngest pilot to complete the feat, breaking a record set earlier this year by American pilot Jack Wiegand, 21.

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Ryan Campbell with cousin Ashton Hurley.Credit:Greg Totman

An enthusiastic crowd greeted the teen at Illawarra Regional Airport when he arrived in his plane, 'The Spirit of the Sapphire Coast', on Saturday morning.

Campbell described his achievement as "surreal" and said an army of supporters on the ground and on social media helped keep him focused.

"The only way I saw myself getting home was in that aeroplane," he said. "I wasn't able to give up, I wasn't to run away from it - it made me realise what you can do if you really commit to it."

Campbell's route took him over deserts, glaciers, oceans, volcanoes. He saw Niagara Falls from the air. Flying, he said, was "magic".

Campbell follows in the slipstream of legendary aviator Charles Kingsford Smith, who made the first flight from the United States to Australia in 1928, and of Albert "Bert" Hinkler, who completed the first solo flight from Britain to Australia the same year.

From the age of six he was determined to become a pilot, and could fly a plane before he could drive a car. He had his first flying lesson at 14, made his first solo flight at 15, got his private pilot's licence at 17 and his commercial license at 18.

Despite delays and route changes - political unrest in Egypt forced him to bypass a planned stopover there - Campbell completed his journey on schedule. In a blog he wrote during the journey, he said his strategy was "breaking the flight down into sections and then tackling just one section at a time".

Campbell said he hopes to inspire the next generation of aviators and is planning to take his plane around Australia to share his passion for flying with children.